Clerking, Firms, and Delaying the Bar Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm doing a clerkship before going to a firm. I'm also considering pushing off the bar until Feb. for health and family reasons. Odds that both the judge and the firm are ok with this?

[Anon-non-anon]

I'd be surprised if either cared, as long as it doesn't interfere with your work to study. If you can do it, I would try to though, it's so nice to be done with that stuff and (in my humble opinion) not that difficult to get by, especially by focusing on multiple choice practice (teaches you the law plus questions are basically the same) while knowing general essay format.

[nixy]

I doubt it would be an issue. I’ve very occasionally seen a judge want their clerks to be barred (but I think this is very rare), but I’ve also seen clerks studying for the bar in February. I would check with your judge because some chambers do have workloads where studying and clerking would be a bit difficult (or they may know already something big is going to be scheduled for that date).

I can’t imagine why the firm would care.

(Depending on the reasons, I second getting it out of the way if you can. But lots of people do study while working and pass.)

[Anonymous User]

I think it will depend big time on what your chambers workload/culture looks like. My co-clerk in a D. Ct. is currently studying for the bar. Although the judge is fine with her taking time off for the exam, she is really stressed out because our workload is already steep. I would try your best to get a sense of what your judge's clerks' schedule looks like before making the decision. You will probably regret not just doing it over the summer if your chambers ends up being one where people are in the office until 9pm or later every evening.

[Vursz]

I think it will depend big time on what your chambers workload/culture looks like. My co-clerk in a D. Ct. is currently studying for the bar. Although the judge is fine with her taking time off for the exam, she is really stressed out because our workload is already steep. I would try your best to get a sense of what your judge's clerks' schedule looks like before making the decision. You will probably regret not just doing it over the summer if your chambers ends up being one where people are in the office until 9pm or later every evening.

I will second this. I studied for the bar while clerking (for a wonderful judge with very reasonable hours) and the bar study process was still awful because of the time crunch and the inability to guarantee “safe” time to study. If there’s any way to avoid working and studying at the same time, I’d highly recommend that—at the very least, start a lot earlier than you think you’ll need to.

[decimalsanddollars]

I would add that if you're planning to consider and interview for other firms, your study time will likely conflict with the main recruitment window. It may (but might not) hurt your chances at switching firms that you're not already done with the bar/licensed. That said, if you're planning on staying at your firm and not shopping around, this shouldn't be a big issue.